1-156-516 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Charles Stuart Parnell, 19th century Irish Politician, c1874-1891. Parnell (1846-1891) was a supporter of the Irish Land League, which campaigned for land reform and against the administration of estates in Ireland by absentee landlords. He also supported Irish Home Rule, becoming President of the Home Rule Confederation in 1877. He entered Parliament in 1874, and by 1880 was leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, the MPs of which he organised into a unified, disciplined bloc which exerted great influence on parliamentary politics in the 1880s. In 1888 a Commission was set up by the British government to investigate claims that Parnell was complicit in the murders of Lord Frederick Cavendish and TH Burke, the Chief Secretary and Under-Secretary for Ireland, in Phoenix Park, Dublin, in 1882. In March 1887 The Times had accused Parnell of support for the murderers and letters were subsequently published indicating a more direct involvement in the crime. The Commission vindicated Parnell and the letters were established to be forgeries written by Richard Piggott, a journalist, who committed suicide when their origin became known.